In response to Andrew Wakefield’s claim that the MMR vaccine leads to autism in children, the CMAJ-JAMC commented on its later retraction of the paper published in the Lancet. This claim that MMR vaccine leads to autism was retracted due to various aspects of the study including the small sample of 12 children in the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine. These patients had chronic enterocolitis and regressive developmental disorder. It was later discovered that the study was funded by lawyers who represented anti-vaccine parents. However, the council who reviewed the study found it to be unethical towards the patients involved in intense testing. Other parties against the study include pediatricians like Dr. Suzanne Lewis, who understands the risks involved with children not vaccinated. A reason for publishing the paper could be because the parents involved were so eager to find answers as to why their children developed autism and because it was popular in the media at the time to find causes of autism.
Although the Lancet paper was retracted, the repercussions of such a study informing parents that vaccinating their children with the MMR vaccine causes autism could very well contribute to a decrease in children being vaccinated, and therefore, more outbreaks of the measles. Today, the CDC collected data from the World Health Organization that showed from January 1-July 31 of 2019, 182 countries reported 235,569 more cases of the measles than in 2018. The African Region, Western Pacific Region, and European Region were among the largest increases of cases. This disease is life-threatening and in 2017, caused 110,000 deaths according to the CDC. However, this disease is preventable if the individual is vaccinated. The CDC reports more than 21 million lives have been saved since 2000 because of the MMR vaccine. To allow awareness and prevention, the CDC is striving to deliver the vaccine across the world, supporting investigations of any outbreaks, and supporting immunization campaigns.
So, what is contributing to the increased outbreak? The UNICEF Organization merely states that decreased vaccination rates leads to increased measles outbreaks. The measles is a highly contagious disease, so 95% of the population must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease. UNICEF explains that decreased rates of immunization are due to poor health services, civil strife in countries, misinformation, and reducing awareness. However, the best way to prevent this disease is to vaccinate individuals and in countries like the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and the Philippines, there have been significant increases in disease outbreaks when the people were misinformed about vaccines.
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